Head of School, Mike Cobb shows Brenda Johnson ( back) and Paige Ware ( front) the new rennovations as they take a school tour. All Saints Center for Innovation project is expected to open in August when school starts. Taken on Friday June 30, 2017. (Schuyler Wick/ Tyler Morning Telegraph).

The staff at All Saints Episcopal School are spending their summer transforming the campus. When elementary students return in the fall, they will be walking into an interactive forest, while the high school students will be immersed in a fully-integrated, technology-oriented learning environment.

All Saints has launched headlong into Phase II of its renovation and construction, which will include a lower school collaboratory, foyer and entryway renovation and the upper school’s Center for Innovation.

As students walk into the lower school, they will be greeted with towering, cartoon-like trees leading into a group learning area.

All Saints also is in the process of installing a school farm near the lower school, which will allow students to grow their own food and tend to chickens.

Students will share in an interconnected experience, starting with the farm and going all the way through to the upper school’s entrepreneur-oriented experiences.

“One thing that is key to us is authentic learning experiences,” Headmaster Mike Cobb said. “The learning farm connects directly all the way through to our Entrepreneur Café.”

The upper floor of Rogers Hall has been transformed into a learning environment, which includes a top-of-the-line fabrication laboratory, a design studio, an idea lab and a student run café.

The E-Café puts students in the driver’s seat and tasks them with making the decisions necessary to keep a business afloat.

“We want them to fail forward,” Cobb said. “If they don’t budget for coffee, then they won’t have any coffee for a day.”

Cobb said the students also will build a business model starting with branding and going through menu development and product placement.

The center also features an Idea Lab, which will connect students with other schools across the globe. The connectivity will allow the school to offer even more electives, such as its upcoming Mandarin Chinese classes.

With the fabrication lab, students will have all the tools they might need to bring products or art from idea to inception.

“They will be able to learn to prototype products,” Cobb said. “We’re going to have a ‘shark tank’ feature, so when kids have business ideas they can go to them for funding.”

The school’s new Chief Innovation Officer Jason Kearn will help guide students on their journey to starting down the path to becoming entrepreneurs.

Cobb hopes to see students launching their own small businesses with the help of the school and guidance from a network of corporate and community partners.

Funding for the renovations has been provided as part of a $6 million campaign that will see a science Exploratorium, outdoor learning center and more being installed as part of Phase III in the summer of 2018.

Cobb said the school has raised about $3.7 million so far.

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